Chinese vice president Han Zheng warned, in an apparent jab at Donald Trump, that tariff and trade wars would have no winners even as Beijing and Washington stepped up efforts to resolve their disputes.
Addressing the World Peace Forum in Beijing, Mr Han said the multilateral trade system was key to avoiding disruptions in global supply chains.
He made the remarks just days ahead of the 9 July deadline for countries on Mr Trump’s tariffs list to negotiate trade deals with the US.
The Chinese commerce ministry said this week that it hoped the US would continue to meet it halfway and maintain the stability of bilateral trade and economic relations, which nosedived earlier this year when Mr Trump imposed punishing import levies on the country.
“We hope the US side will deeply understand the mutually beneficial and win-win nature of China-US economic and trade relations,” the ministry said.
It called on Washington to preserve the positive momentum on talks to resolve disputes while warning third countries against “making a deal at the expense of China‘s interests” with the US.
China had retaliated against the Trump levies by suspending exports of a wide range of critical minerals and magnets. During a round of trade talks in Geneva in May, Beijing committed to removing the restrictions imposed since 2 April but the US said the critical materials were not moving as fast as agreed.
A breakthrough came during talks in London the following month when the two sides agreed a framework to implement the Geneva agreement.
“China is currently reviewing and approving eligible export licence applications for controlled items,” the commerce ministry said, referring to the rare earth export curbs.
In response, the US took actions “to lift a series of restrictive measures against China” and “informed Beijing about the relevant situation”, the ministry said, confirming reports that Washington had resumed exports of chip design software, ethane and jet engines to the Asian giant.
“Teams on both sides are stepping up efforts to implement relevant outcomes of the London framework,” the ministry said, calling the framework “hard-won”.
US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick told Bloomberg last month that China was “going to deliver rare earths to us” and, once they did, the US would “take down our countermeasures”.
Thanks to this trade truce, China is not at risk of being hit with higher levies when the 90-day pause on the implementation of Mr Trump’s tariffs ends next week.
But Mr Trump’s trade deals with the UK and Vietnam suggest China may remain an indirect target, according to China Economics head Julian Evans-Pritchard.
“It seems that Trump is keen to crack down on the rerouting of Chinese exports via third countries, which has diminished the effectiveness of US tariffs,” Mr Evans-Pritchard told Reuters.
